IBM's UrbanCode Buy Gives Boost To ISVs, Cloud Service Providers

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Maxava's Campbell sees benefits from the UrbanCode technology for customers, cloud service providers and ISVs.

"End customers are either trying to gain a competitive edge through technology or are simply trying to avoid being left behind in the functionality arms race," he said. "Cloud-based solutions that can be switched on almost overnight have seriously eroded the long-term strategic value of traditional application investments. For example, it used to take months or years to implement a major CRM application; these days you can have an effective comparable solution in a matter of weeks. If you are not upgrading or refreshing your in-house software almost continually, or utilizing the best available cloud-based solutions, you are going to be swamped -- either way, faster, more responsive, more consistent delivery by software vendors is being demanded.

"On top of ever faster enhancement of existing products, ISVs are also having to ensure that they have high-performance mobile interfaces, MSP-friendly monitoring and management capabilities and the ability to operate seamlessly in the cloud -- that is a lot of development shop demand. This looks like a great offering for both traditional ISVs trying to avoid becoming irrelevant and for cloud-focused ISVs trying to that ensure they do," Campbell said.

"Consumers are rapidly becoming a driving force in today's market. Couple that with the blitz of new technologies like mobile, social and cloud, and the game has changed drastically," said Vishal Rajpal, general manager of IBM BPMS at solution provider Perficient.

"The movement to mobile and digital channels has prompted leading organizations to make sense of the vast volumes of information generated through those channels, and has placed demands on them for effective usability, architecture and development approaches. There's a struggle to keep pace - internal infrastructures need to support these various technology advancements, and need to do so in real-time. With the acquisition of UrbanCode, IBM continues to piece together the mobile puzzle and closes the next logical step in broadening their DevOps strategy," Rajpal said.

"We can leverage UrbanCode’s software delivery to create and distribute applications for a range of mobile devices in a matter of hours," he added.

IBM channel partners that use IBM software to build their products will benefit from the addition of the UrbanCode technology, Newell said, as will partners that sell DevOps and software life-cycle management solutions based on IBM products. "This augments that portfolio," he said.

UrbanCode and its 50-plus employees will become part of IBM's Rational Software division, with CEO Maciej Zawadzki reporting to Kristof Kloeckner, Rational Software general manager. IBM did not disclose the amount it paid for privately held UrbanCode, which has 400 customers and is based in Cleveland.